


Holding Hands

by christarennerston



Series: Elizabeth Hastings [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Comforting Hawkeye, F/M, General fiction, Literature, Might lead somewhere, fan fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-11 05:24:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7878220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/christarennerston/pseuds/christarennerston
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was part of an OTP that I could never do in a month</p><p>Clint brings up boyfriends and Elizabeth becomes sad at memories of her exes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holding Hands

**Author's Note:**

> I read this a long time after I wrote it and I actually think it's pretty good

How Elizabeth ended up on a flying ship in the middle of the ocean was beyond her. One minute she was handing the manila folder over to the creeper that broke into her place, the next six months after that was a blur. 

      Liza had so many questions running through her brain. What happened to her apartment since she wasn’t there to pay rent? If she was thrown out, where was her stuff? Did her father and best friend know where she was or that she was alright? What did an intelligence agency need with a Digital Designer?  
       
      “Doing all that thinking is gonna give you a headache,” Barton stated as he leaned against the cool metal of her computer desk.  
       
      “I’m sure it’ll be mild compared to the ones you give me,” she told him without a look towards the guy. She couldn’t help but smirk when she swatted his lower back so he wasn’t so close to her or her desk.  
       
      “What was that for?” Clint’s face was almost in a pout as he rubbed at the sore spot.  
       
      “You were in my bubble.” Elizabeth knew the agent wouldn’t take it seriously; he knew this was her way of saying she enjoyed his company.  
       
      “I’d hate to see how you treat your boyfriend.” Clint’s blue eyes widened slightly as the smile that was on Eliza’s lips moments before had vanished. He watched the pain flicker through her eyes before they seemed to harden into ice. “Look, Eliza, I’m-.”  
       
      Elizabeth turned back to her computer screen and proceeded to search on the web. “Don’t worry about it, Barton; you should probably go since I have some work here and the team is probably looking for you.” She didn’t even look at him as she heard the defeated sigh leave his lips or when she heard the footsteps softening as he walked away.  
       
      No one knew about her guy trouble, why should they? It wasn’t their business. Her gloved hands rose to her temples to massage the growing headache away. She wasn’t mad at the agent for bringing it up, but it still hurt. Any guy she has ever had feelings for always seemed to either fall off the face of the earth or cheat. The woman never knew what she had done wrong or if it was because something was just wrong with her.  
       
      “Stop it,” Eliza told herself, “get a grip and get back to work. Those business cards aren’t going to make themselves.” Blocking out everything else, she went back to the cards; doing her best to make each one perfect.  
       
      Thankfully, Elizabeth was given normal business hours so once the clock hit five she logged off her computer and wrapped her messenger bag strap around her before heading off. She enjoyed her job, but some of the things she had to do, no matter how easy they seemed, mentally drained her from her effort. Each image she looked at seemed to steal her life away; each letter she typed making her brain wish for bed more than anything else.

As the woman was walking back to where she was boarded on the hellicarrier, she couldn’t help but take a deep breath at the scent of something sweet coming from the nearby cafeteria. Tapping her sneakers in the hallway, she mentally debated with herself. 

‘You know that if you go in there and have whatever it is then it’ll just go straight to your hips and you’ll have to work out for a month to lose it,’ one side told her.

While the other side of her was saying, ‘You had a rough day with the business cards and the mention of your exes. Go for it, you deserve a little pick me up.’

In the end, the sweet smelling goodness won the battle as she drug her tired body into the cafeteria. She headed straight to the food bar and grabbed a couple of cookies and a pint of white milk before paying and sitting at a round table near the darkening windows.

“You’re just everywhere aren’t you,” Clint questioned as he sat opposite of her, his own cookies and milk in tow.

“Agent Barton, are you stalking me? I mean you break into my house and now you show up everywhere I seem to be.” Eliza cracked a small smile at seeing the agent roll his eyes.  
       
“Do you always have to bring that up? And no, I’m not stalking you, I just smelled the cookies and wanted some.” His blues eyes landed on his cookies again as his hands went in for the kill. It was like a child on Christmas when he broke it in half to find the cookie still gooey inside.

The small smile that graced Elizabeth’s lips earlier had returned before she munched on her own cookies. The table grew silent as the two ate, the boyfriend issue mentioned earlier looming over their heads.

A sigh left the man’s lips before he spoke, “Listen, I’m sorry about bringing up the boyfriend thing earlier. I don’t know if it’s a past or present thing that brought you down so quickly and it’s none of my business. I just wanted to make sure to tell you that I’m sorry about making you think of it.”

Elizabeth nodded, her eyes glued to the crumbs on the napkin in front of her. “You didn’t know, Barton, so I can’t accept an apology that isn’t needed. It just brought back thoughts that I had trouble – heck, still have trouble- answering. I’m sure I’ll be back to normal tomorrow.”

The table grew silent once more, an awkward silence that made the two feel uncomfortable. Just as Elizabeth had decided to tell him goodnight and head off, a hand encased hers; a light squeeze applied without either saying a word. The agent held her hand, not expecting anything in return, but just to say, in his own way, that he’d be there if she needed to talk. That if she ever needed consolation or anything else, he was there for his newest friend.


End file.
